Bob MacIntyre to play in Ras al Khaimah double-header before heading to US

Bob MacIntyre is staying in the United Arab Emirates for his next two events instead of heading to California to start his 2022 campaign on the PGA Tour.

Bob MacIntyre pictured on the eighth tee at Emirates Golf Club during the Slync.io Dubai Desert Classic. Picrure: Warren Little/Getty Images.

The Oban man, who is keen to play as much as he can on the US circuit, had secured an invitation for next week’s AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.

However, he has now decided to play in the DP World Tour’s double-header in Ras al Khaimah before heading to Los Angeles for the Genesis Invitational, having also received an invitation for that event.

The main reason for the decision to delay his journey across the Atlantic is that MacIntyre, who missed the cut in the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship and Slync.io Dubai Desert Classic, has a slight ankle issue at the moment and wants to keep receiving treatment from the DP World Tour physios.

Referring to fellow Scot Ian Dingwall, he told The Scotsman: “I’ve been seeing Dingers the last two weeks with an ankle problem, not that it hindered my performance in either Abu Dhabi or Dubai.

“We’ve been trying to do stuff on it every morning to try and free it up so that I can hit all the shots I want to.”

While pleased to have received the invitations for the two events on the PGA Tour, the 25-year-old feels it is the right decision at the moment to be heading to Ras al Khaimah, which sits an hour north of Dubai, rather than making a 16-hour flight to the west coast of America.

His manager, Iain Stoddart, said: “The AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am is the PGA Tour equivalent of the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship and you have three unknown courses to prepare for.

“You are allowed two commissioner exemptions in a season and we just felt we were asking too much, and potentially placing too much load on the ankle, to use one of these coveted PGA Tour invitations.”

The Ras al Khaimah Championship presented by Phoenix Capital starts at Al Hamra, where MacIntyre finished sixth in the 2018 Challenge Tour Grand Final, on Thursday.

It is then being followed by the Ras al Khaimah Classic, which was added after the Qatar Masters was postponed.

MacIntyre has secured invitations for both events and takes the number of Scots in the first leg to 12.

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